Worksheets. Ugh! As speech-language pathologists, we usually struggle with two conflicting viewpoints:

“I really dislike worksheets, I just want to make my sessions fun.”
versus:
“I need to ensure carryover and mimic the types of lessons my colleagues do in their classrooms.”

I fall between the two. Yes, I use a lot of task cards and speech-language games to keep sessions fun and motivating. However, I also feel worksheets generate great data to see if students are carrying over the strategies and skills they learn in the treatment room to regular classrooms.

How do I gather this data? I find worksheets from resources designed around the skills I teach. Below are some of my favorite websites to use for free resources:

Read Works – a nonprofit offering research-based and Common Core reading comprehension resources.

NewsELA – a mobile app generating current news stories and quizzes at five different reading comprehension levels.

Once my students demonstrate improvement or even mastery of a skill, I give them worksheets to show them how they can use those skills during classroom comprehension tasks. Can they identify higher-level versus lower-level questions, for example? Can they identify which skill they need to respond to questions? I also ask students to highlight key words in the questions to help them determine what type of information they need to find the answer.

What else do I do? After we read a comprehension passage, I take statements from the passage that present a main idea or a detail. Each student gets an index card with “main idea” and “detail” on each side. After I read each statement, they hold up the correct side of their card. This lets me gather data and reduces the need to call out students, and the students can see peer responses to help them determine if their answer is correct.
You can also use worksheets to show students how to think out loud. I find many of my students don’t know how to talk while they read and need to think about what they say. However, teachers expect them to ask or answer questions before, during and after reading. To teach them these skills, I use speech bubbles and printed reading passages. First, I laminate colorful speech bubbles, so I can re-use them with a dry-erase marker. I then demonstrate for students what I say or think while I read. I did this with the text below from Read Works.

How else do I make worksheets fun? I turn answering questions into a game! Put students into pairs and let them work with a peer. They can work together to figure out if and why an answer is correct or incorrect and hold academic discussions. After students respond to a question I let them roll a dice for points. I used a text from NewsELA and a dry erase marker to keep score right on my treatment table!

Whatever text I use, I always try to make the activity interactive, motivating and engaging. Whether I turn it into a game or use manipulatives to bring text to life, worksheets can generate fun and useful activities in a speech-language treatment session.

As classroom teachers change their teaching to base objectives around Common Core State Standards, we, as speech-language pathologists, must consider the standards as well. It affects us in our identification of language disorders, goal writing, and session objectives.
It is important to consider the CCSS when identifying students through the Response to Intervention (RTI) process. It is important to collaborate with classroom teachers to understand where the students are struggling and which standards they are unable to achieve. Regardless of the RTI tier or level of support the student in question is receiving, we must determine strategies to help these students acquire these standards necessary for age and grade.
There are a variety of speech and language difficulties that can affect a student’s ability to acquire the CCSS. Some examples of these include:

If they cannot use or respond to questions, it will impact their ability to “Understand and use question words (interrogatives) (e.g., who, what, where, when, why, how).”

If they have weaknesses in vocabulary, it will impact their ability to “Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details, expressing ideas and feelings clearly.”

If they display difficulties comprehending grammatical concepts, it will impact their ability to “Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.”

You should consider what standards are expected for the grade of the student in question and where the student is functioning when developing goals.

So how can you incorporate CCSS philosophies during speech and language sessions? First get a handle on what students are expected to know and understand. This will assist with carryover of skills from the speech room into the classroom and beyond. Here are some ideas to consider:

You can have students go on scavenger hunts to help them learn to identify text features of nonfiction texts.

Have students practice using higher level thinking: predict, question, visualize, analyze, and make connections.

Model for students what to do/think before, during, and after reading by using thought bubbles on a Popsicle stick to help illustrate what one should think and say at each of those phases.

Use a KWL chart (know, want to know, learned) when teaching new vocabulary/concepts. Use carrier phrases to teach students how to express key story elements:

“The main characters are…”

“The important events are…”

“The author is…”

“One fact I learned is…”

Use thinking notes on Post-Its while reading a story to teach students to generate their own questions while reading.

For the most part, the CCSS correlate with our typical speech and language goals and objectives. One difference is the expectations for students per grade. Another difference is the language students are expected to recognize, comprehend, and use in the classroom. If classroom teachers are expected to use the vocabulary in the classroom, it is important for our students to hear that same vocabulary in the speech room as well. For students with vocabulary weaknesses, they may need extra assistance in learning this vocabulary and terminology. Some important vocabulary words and concepts that we, as Speech-Language Pathologists should incorporate into our sessions and make sure our students understand include:

Evidence

Central idea

Point of view

Plot

Audience

Analyze

Dialogue

Theme

Whether you are identifying students that could benefit from speech and language services, developing goals, or creating treatment plans,you as an SLP working with school-aged students need to consider the CCSS. It will help advocate how a student will benefit from speech and language services as well as justify for those that are ready to graduate. It also will help make speech and language sessions more academically relevant and easier to promote generalization into the classroom.

“Miss Speechie” is a licensed speech-language pathologist working in a public elementary school in New York State. She is the author of the blog, Speech Time Fun. She enjoys creating and sharing materials, resources, ideas for speech-language pathologists.

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